The Pensionnat du Saint-Nom-de-Marie found its roots in Eulalie Durocher's love and desire to work in youth education. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) was founded in Longueuil on October 16, 1843, by this young woman who then became Mother Marie-Rose. The Sisters’ vision was always to empower young girls and support their development so that they can become thoughtful, determined and ambitious women. The school is a partner of the Vincent-d'Indy music school where students who wish can take music lessons as part of their training. It is also a world-renowned institution for its partnership with l’École supérieure de ballet du Québec. 

The expansion of the Pensionnat du Saint-Nom-de-Marie private school includes a new pavilion which is comprised of 4 floors of reinforced concrete annexed to the main pavilion. The original structure, initially designed by the architect Jean-Zéphyrin Resther, was built between 1903 and 1905 at the foot of Mount Royal on former agricultural estates of the municipality of Outremont.

The new section, located beside the main building, features unique and striking precast concrete architectural wall panels that used stones from St-Marc. The windows were pre-installed in the wall panels at the manufacturing plant rather than onsite. This effective method helped to accelerate the installation at the construction site and provided significant improvements in terms of cost, quality, productivity, safety, energy efficiency and the ability to reduce waste with less site disturbance.

The load capacity of the concrete slabs allowed the use of precast concrete panels with an integrated limestone coating in the envelope. This solution resulted in a beautiful facade that harmonizes with the other heritage pavilions of the historic PSNM campus. In addition, the versatility of precast concrete allowed elements to be dimensioned to take into account the future addition of a fifth floor.

Precast concrete allowed the construction of floors with better vibration attenuation behaviour, control of acoustic transmission, as well as fire protection without requiring the use of other components.

The construction of the pavilion, designed by the firm Yelle Maillé et Associés Architectes, was also an excellent opportunity to take concrete actions to improve the building’s energy consumption, for example, by using geothermal energy as a heating and air conditioning solution.

Photos: © 2024 Émile Martel

Sources: 
aciquebec.com, psnm.qc.ca